German Cheese Spaetzle

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A super easy-to-make traditional German delicacy.

I know, it has been a while! I moved houses at the beginning of May and I now live on a house boat right on the Thames. It still is a very exciting time and we’re still sorting everything out. So please have a little patience with me before I’ll start baking again.

In the meanwhile, why not treat yourself to a very traditional German speciality? My boyfriend lives in Southern Germany at the moment and food is very traditional down there. Doesn’t mean it always is super rich and filling. And as it happens, I really like cheese and he knows how to make “Käse Spätzle” (that’s the German word for Cheese Spaetzle), a kind of German pasta that you can make without much effort. Cheese Spaetzle are quite idiot-proof and actually kind of fun to make:

cheese spaetzle käse spätzle

Cheese Spaetzle
for 2-4 people

  • 300g flour
  • 4 eggs
  • salt
  • 100g grated cheese
  • 1 onion (or dried ones to sprinkle them on top)
  • olive oil (only if you use fresh onions)

Bring a large pan with water to the boil. Add salt.
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Combine the flour, eggs and a pinch of salt and whisk them until the pasta dough is really sticky. If it’s not sticky enough, add some water or milk. If it’s too runny, add some flour.

Now, the fun part: Take a plastic cutting board, put some spaetzle dough on it and spread it thinly. Cut finger long bits right into the simmering water.
Do this with the entire dough (it might take you a while, that’s why I usually have some red wine handy… hehe).
The spaetzle are ready when they appear on the surface of the simmering water.

Put the cooked spaetzle into an oven proof dish and cover them with as much cheese as you like. Bake in the oven for 180°C until the Cheese Spaetzle are crispy brown on top.

Finally, sprinkle them with onions. (If you use fresh onions, cut them really thinly and fry them in a bit of olive oil until they’re slightly crispy -or just use dried onions.)

Here’s the breakdown for you (based on 4 people):

Calories: 476
Carbs: 56g
Fat: 18g
Protein: 21g
Sodium: 64mg
Sugar: 3g

Cheese Spaetzle are really great with a dark red wine, we had Pinot Noir if I remember correctly. Also, a little side of greens are good if you’d have the feeling that dish is kind of lacking green (it is!).

Overall, Cheese Spaetzle are so easy to make that you can’t really go wrong with them. Also, the recipe can easily be adjusted to more people eating: Just add 75g flour and 1 egg (plus one extra egg for the entire recipe) for every person. Not that difficult :)

Enjoy your Cheese Spaetzle!

Love, Becca x

Cheese Scones With Spinach

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A little twist on the traditional cheese scone recipe.

It was back in Germany when I first tried scones, in a tiny English café that recently opened in my home town. So naturally, I was quite curious and went in there one day. As well as porridge they had a range of really nice looking cakes and scones. I never heard of scones before but they served it with clotted cream and strawberries. Back then, I also didn’t know what clotted cream was but you can’t go wrong with strawberries I thought. In retrospect, it was a pretty weak point but at least I tried something new for a change.

The first bite was interesting… I never tasted anything sweet that was so dense. But together with the clotted cream and the strawberries, I really liked the typical English afternoon tea. After a while however, it was a bit too sweet and as a result, I tried numerous different savoury scone recipes over the years.

Being a massive cheese fan, I had to try cheese scones of course! Cheese scones are really nice when you want to have something that’s a bit different for breakfast but can’t be bothered to cook in the morning. Simply make some cheese scones on the weekend and have fabulous breakfast for an entire week! :)

In the following recipe, I added some spinach to the cheese scones but you can go without the spinach of course. Maybe you even want to try out some other cheese for your cheese scones? I imagine Blue Stilton might be a really nice touch.

Cheese Scones

Spinach makes them look a bit odd. But they are delicious! :)

Cheese Scones With Spinach
serves 9 people

  • 300g flour
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 2.5 tsp baking powder
  • 55g salted butter
  • 180ml milk
  • 100 thawed frozen spinach
  • 2tbsp chopped chives
  • 50g grated Cheddar

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F).
If you use spinach, make sure that all the water is squeezed out. This works bet over a colon to prevent any spinach from falling into the sink.
Mix the try ingredients (flour, baking powder, chives and cheddar) together. In another bowl, mix all the wet ingredients (sugar, butter, milk, spinach), gradually add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients, constantly kneading the dough.
Divide the dough into 9 equally sized balls and put them on a baking tray.
Bake in the middle of the oven for about 25 minutes.

These are the calories for the recipe above, if you use different cheese or leave out the spinach they might differ a bit:

Calories: 188
Carbs: 28g
Fat: 6g
Protein: 6g
Sodium: 44mg
Sugar: 2g

Next time, I will leave out the spinach and try some cheese scones with Blue Stilton and some walnuts. Maybe accompanied by a nice glass of red wine.

Love, Becca x

Sugar Free Beetroot Brownies

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Delicious, sweet, chocolatey brownies that are healthy? Yes, please!

A workmate told me about this new craze – beetroot brownies. She had some in her Graze box but I’ve never even seen any. And wasn’t entirely convinced to be honest. Especially, because the recipe she sent through contained sugar and I’m still on my refined sugar free experiment. It’s going really well so far! I treated myself to some sugary macaroons on Brick Lane this Sunday because it was such a nice day and I passed a very important test that day so I just felt like it.

The funny thing is that sugary things don’t even taste good any more. They’re just sweet. And I know that they don’t contain any healthy nutritions, so I don’t really see the point. Which is a good thing, I suppose!

Anyway, my workmate planted the idea of sugar free beetroot brownies in my head and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. So I picked up some beetroot from the supermarket on my way home and here we are:

Sugar free beetroot brownies

Sugar Free Beetroot Brownies
serves 44

  • 200g ground almonds
  • 90g butter
  • 3 tbsp agave syrup
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 banana, mashed
  • 3 beetroots, cooked and shredded
  • 3 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180°C or 350°F.

Melt the butter and agave syrup in a microwave safe bowl. Whisk the eggs and combine them with the butter.
Then, combine the ground almonds, shredded beetroots, mashed banana, vanilla extract and cocoa powder and add them to the wet ingredients. Mix thoroughly. Now is the time to add some cinnamon or any nuts if you like.
Put the beetroot brownie dough into a brownie mould and bake it for 30 minutes.

Let them cool and cut them into 44 squares. Done! :)

The calories are pretty decent as well:

Calories: 58
Carbs: 2g
Fat: 5g
Protein: 2g
Sodium: 7mg
Sugar: 1g

sugar free beetroot brownies

I had some while they were still warm and I can say I’m absolutely convinced! The sugar free beetroot brownies are so moist, soft and delicious, I couldn’t believe that they actually contain yucky beetroot (yes, I’m not the biggest beetroot-fan). As always, I’m sure they’ll be delicious with a nice cup of tea during my afternoon break at work tomorrow.

Love, Becca x

Sugar Free Chocolate Blueberry Muffins

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Sugar free, chocolatey and fruity. And super easy to make. Omnomnom!

It’s raining again (what a surprise) and I recently discovered some unsweetened dried blueberries in my local supermarket. So I thought, why not trying to bake a healthy version of the much loved Blueberry Muffins?

Half way trough combining all the ingredients, I realized that there’s something missing – chocolate! I know that the traditional American Blueberry Muffin recipe doesn’t have cocoa in it but I love a bit of healthy chocolate in my muffins so I added some :)

My sugar free journey is going ok so far. I had some sugar this week which promptly left me in a really whiny mood the next day. It might be hard from time to time, but I certainly feel so much better without sugar. And I discovered some really lovely things that I wouldn’t have touched if I’d still eat sugar. Such as agave syrup and dates. And honey! My breakfasts usually contains at least one crispbread with honey and a sprinkle of cinnamon on top, perfect for that 9 o’clock tea.

Sugar Free Chocolate Blueberry Muffins

Sugar Free Chocolate Blueberry Muffins
serves 12

  • 150g butter
  • 4 tbsp honey
  • 150g flour (I used spelt flour)
  • 1tsp baking powder
  • 2tbsp cocoa powder (sugar free)
  • 3 eggs
  • 75g dried blueberries, unsweetened
  • 6 dried dates, chopped
  • cinnamon, allspice
  • few drops of vanilla

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F) and line a muffin tray with paper muffin cases.

Melt together the butter and honey. In a big bowl, combine the flour and the baking powder. Add cocoa powder and a pinch of cinnamon and allspice, combine. Add the liquid butter and vanilla and mix thoroughly. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and add them to the muffin dough. Lastly, add the dried blueberries and chopped dates.

Bake for 20 minutes (and do the washing up while they’re in the oven).

Calories: 139
Carbs: 14g
Fat: 6g
Protein: 3g
Sodium: 79mg
Sugar: 9g

As you can see, they don’t have too many calories and they’re still sweet enough to enjoy them with your afternoon cuppa. I love the hint of allspice in it, might add a few more blueberries next time though because they’re just so good!

Enjoy!
Love, Becca x

Sugar Free Raisin Flapjacks

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Sugar free, easy to make and ready to eat in just 30 minutes, what’s not to like?

Today is day 4 of my sugar free journey. It’s going really well so far, I don’t have any cravings at all and I enjoy baking sugar free things and experimenting with agave syrup and mashed banana.

Some experiments of course go wrong, I won’t be baking with Splenda ever again, that’s for sure! Yesterday, I found out that I might be super sensitive to the taste of artificial sweeteners such as Splenda or any other nasty stuff that’s supposed to taste “just like sugar” (as if!). This might explain, why I never liked Diet Coke and Coke Zero. Artificial stuff, eww. So I decided to only go for natural sweeteners in future. I will bake with agave or maple syrup, bananas or organic honey.

Some other experiments went surprisingly well though. Such as my Sugar Free Raisin Flapjacks. Recently, I wondered if it was difficult to make flapjacks. I never baked them in the past because they always seemed quite unhealthy and full of calories. Turns out, flapjacks are really easy to make and if you make them sugar free and maybe even with whole meal oats instead of normal ones, they’re even good for you, yay!

sugar free apple raisin flapjacks

Sugar Free Raisin Flapjacks
Serves 30

  • 100g Butter
  • 3 tbsp Agave Syrup
  • 300g oats
  • 2 tbsp sugar free cocoa powder
  • 1 Banana, mashed
  • 75g Raisins
  • Piment powder (or allspice or cinnamon)

In a well sized pan, melt the butter and the agave syrup. Add the mashed banana. In another bowl, mix the oats with the cocoa powder, raisins and piment powder.

Then, add the oat mixture to the butter and combine it. You should end up with a slightly solid yet sticky texture. Spread this onto a baking tray or put it in a brownie tin.

Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes at 140°C (fan oven). Let the mixture cool down and cut it into 30 smallish flapjacks.

sugar free apple raisin flapjacks

This is what flapjacks look like without a bow ;-)

Surprisingly, the calories are not too bad:

Calories: 69
Carbs: 10g
Fat: 3g
Protein: 1g
Sodium: 24mg
Sugar: 2g

The great thing is that you don’t really need to eat that many of them. They are small (usually about half the size of any flapjack you can buy in-store) yet filling and sweet enough to keep you happy. Serve them with a nice cup of black tea and enjoy your sugar free afternoon!

Love, Becca x

Sugar Free – Day 2

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Sugar free mug brownies? Yes please!

Today was Day 2 of my sugar free experiment. It also was my first day back in the office after 5 days off so naturally, I expected the day to be horrible. Turns out, it was a rather amazing day!

I started the day with some crisp bread, cheese and seaweed “caviar”, adding up to less than 170 calories. I was so filled up that I wasn’t feeling hungry at all until about 4 hours later. 4 hours!!! I usually have most of my calorie allowance during these first 4 hours in the office.

Somehow, I forgot to prepare anything at home for today, so I had to buy something from the shop. I went for a veggie quiche, it was ok but nothing too great. As dessert I had a summer fruit punnet from my Graze box which was really, really yummy. And sugar free!

When I went home, I wanted to try some new sugar free recipes. I googled a bit and stumbled upon some nice looking brownie recipes, so I decided to bake sugar free brownies. Whilst they were in the oven, inspiration hit me and I tried a few things on my own. Out came this:

Sugar Free Brownie in a mug

Sugar Free Chocolate Brownie In A Mug
Serves 1

  • 2 tbsp spelt flour
  • 2 tbsp sugar free cocoa powder
  • 2 tbsp oil
  • 2 tbsp water
  • 2 tbsp Agave syrup
  • cinnamon powder

Combine all the ingredients in a mug and microwave it for 45-60 seconds. Let it cool for a few minutes and you’ll have the perfect afternoon treat. It won’t get any easier than this ;)

The calories are quite high but I think it’s down to the spelt flour. You could try and substitute some of the oil for milk, this should reduce the calories a bit.

Calories: 290
Carbs: 29g
Fat: 16g
Protein: 6g
Sodium: 22mg
Sugar: 15g

Apart from baking, my day went really well. Again, I didn’t have any sugar cravings and was feeling full and not hungry all day long. Also, my mood was really great and even the annoying kids on the bus couldn’t get to me today ;)

If you’re trying to give up sugar as well, please let me know! I would love to talk to some like-minded people about it. Share your experiences below.

Love, Becca x

Sugar Free – Day 1

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It feels like I was born for sweet things. So why would I give up sugar?!

I love sugar. Everybody who knows me usually notices after a few weeks that I eat a lot of sweets. Not only sweets though, I love baking as well. And baking without sugar always seemed kind of dull to me. I also love American cereals (yes, those really sweet ones) and I can still remember that when I was a child and my sister was mean to me (she’s 3 years younger than me and used to bite me very, very often with her tiny milk teeth), my mum used to give me a Werthers Original and I loved it. :)

So why the heck did I decide to give up sugar?

I recently noticed that my moods changed a lot. And I mean A LOT. It was scary, sometimes it was like I was a completely different person. I didn’t feel like myself any more. I also couldn’t sleep very well and would get upset by the silliest things. I tried to blame the weather but even on a sunny day my mood wouldn’t get any better and I always felt like only chocolate could help me. I knew that this couldn’t be what my body was trying to tell me, so I looked for some healthy recipes in order to avoid my blood sugar levels being messed up.

I stumbled upon this blog post and was immediately interested. Laura apparently went through the same kind of experiences I made with white sugar. We’re speaking of digestive problems, mood swings and sugar cravings. And she managed to give up white sugar for 9 months! I think that’s a pretty decent thing to do and was massively inspired.

After a weekend of indulging in all my favourite sweets I completed my first sugar free day today:

Monday – First Sugar Free Day.

I actually thought it was going to be harder. I spoke to Laura last week and she said the first two weeks are pretty tough. But today was amazing! Because today was a Bank Holiday in the UK, I could stay in bed a bit longer which always is brilliant :)

After having a whole grain bagel with cheese and a sugar free smoothie for breakfast, I headed out to Westfield in Stratford. I needed some new shoes and maybe a dress and some new eye cream and so on… Those, who have been to Westfield, know that there’s a massive food hall with all kinds of Eastern European treats, savoury and sweet. To be honest I was a bit afraid of the sweet things because last time, I ended up buying some baklava and it was so good. But I resisted! Even in Marc’s and Spencer’s Food Hall I managed to buy only healthy stuff (baby potatoes! So cute haha) and on my way out, I stopped at Holland & Barrett.

Sugar Free Chocolate bar

Nakd Cocoa Loco Bar ©naturalbalancefoods.com

I discovered, that all (or most?) of the Nakd bars are sugar free. I bought a few to get me through my first sugar free week and tried the Cocoa Loco Oatie Bar today. It was really good and just perfect for my afternoon chocolate fix.

The most amazing thing today was that I didn’t have any cravings whatsoever. Not once. I didn’t even feel like eating anything too sweet and I tried a second Nakd bar in the evening, after my dinner, but I didn’t feel like finishing it so I put it aside and will eat it tomorrow. That’s a first!

Tomorrow will be my first sugar free day in the office… I’m actually quite afraid of it. Wish me luck. :)

Love, Becca x

Kinder Easter Egg Cookies

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Luxurious gooey cookies, the perfect treat for Easter!

Today is Good Friday and that means, a very long weekend of not-working lays ahead of me. I couldn’t be happier :)

Also, I went to Central today and had lunch at an American Diner which was rather amazing, you have to try the milkshakes should you ever be in that area! I had a Peanut Butter/Nutella one and it was mind blowing. Basically like a liquid Snickers, so good. The burgers there are quite good as well, I almost was in a food coma afterwards. But it was worth it, haha!

Today’s recipe is based on my Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies and couldn’t be easier. The cookies only take 30 minutes to make (including baking and washing up) so no excuses. Plus, they’re super delicious and not too sweet, a perfect treat. I usually bake them on a weekend and they still taste good during the following week if you store them in an airtight container.

Kinder Easter Egg Cookies

Kinder Easter Egg Cookies
serves 32

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1tsp baking powder
  • pinch of salt
  • 125g butter, room temperature
  • 3/4 cup sugar, white
  • 1/2 cup sugar, brown
  • 2 eggs
  • 1.5 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 bag Kinder Mini Eggs

Preheat the oven to 190°C, line 2 baking trays with paper.

It’s really easy: First, mix all the dry ingredients together (that’s flour, baking powder and salt). Then, cream the butter and the two sugars together, add the eggs and the vanilla extract and combine everything. Gradually add the flour mixture and whisk. Lastly, you cut each Kinder Mini Egg in half and combine them with the dough.

Take about a tablespoon of dough and put in on the baking tray. Roughly 16 should fit onto one tray. Bake them for around 9-11 minutes.

Let them cool before you eat them because the Kinder Eggs will be quite hot and the cookies might be a bit too “wobbly” to pick them off the tray straight after baking.

Here are the calories for you, it’s actually not too bad for a yummy Easter treat:

Calories: 91
Carbs: 15g
Fat: 3g
Protein: 2g
Sodium: 32mg
Sugar: 9g

What are you doing this Easter? Any massive kitchen adventures planned? :)

Love, Becca x

Zucchini Soup – Less than 50 calories

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Probably the most surprising soup you can cook in less than 30 mins!

After what felt like 2 hours of sunshine and more than 5 degrees last week, the winter is back in London. It has been snowing and it’s so windy outside that my curtains are moving even though the window is closed. Ah, the perks of living in an old Victorian conversion.

Anyway, instead of going for a run, I recently preferred to stay at home, have some tea, cuddle up in front of the telly watching Game of Thrones (the second season is out! Yeah!) and eating lovely soup. I came across this recipe, altered it a bit and now Zucchini Soup is one of my favourites.

It’s so easy to make, you really won’t need more than 30 minutes, including all the chopping. And the taste is so surprising, even though there are no more than 6 ingredients in this heartwarmer!

courgette soup

Zucchini Soup
serves 4

  • half a red onion
  • 3 courgettes (zucchinis)
  • 900ml vegetable stock
  • garlic powder
  • 2tbsp sour cream
  • pepper

Chop up the onion and the courgettes, combine in a large pan with the stock, season with garlic powder to taste and bring it to the boil.
Reduce the heat and let the soup simmer for 20 minutes.

Blend the soup, add sour cream and blend again. Add some pepper, blend again and you’re done.

Non-vegetarians obviously could add some bacon (I imagine, bacon would taste quite good with courgettes, haven’t tested it though).

Here are the calories for you, it looks rather great:

Calories: 48
Carbs: 3g
Fat: 3g
Protein: 2g
Sodium: 14mg
Sugar: 2g

This zucchini soup can, if you add enough garlic and pepper, warm you from the inside for an entire afternoon. I love making this on a Sunday evening, have a bowl of soup there and then with a bit of fresh bread and then fill the remaining soup in small 333ml glass bottles to take to work. On the next day, I just pour the zucchini soup in a bowl and reheat it for 2 minutes in the microwave. That way, I end up with great zucchini soup even though I didn’t have time to cook that day.

Enjoy!

Love, Becca x

Nutella Mug Cake

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Crap at baking? Fear not, this only takes 2 minutes!

These mug cakes seem to be everywhere so I thought, I give them a shot. Turns out, they’re really easy to make and actually do taste like cake, hooray!

Mixing and “baking” the cake only takes 2 minutes and you’ll end up with a lovely treat for you and your partner (or favourite colleague perhaps).

nutella mug cake

Nutella Mug Cake
serves 2

  • 4 tbsp flour
  • 3 tbsp sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 3 tbsp milk
  • 2 tbsp oil
  • 3 tbsp Nutella
  • 3 tbsp cocoa powder

In a very large mug or muesli bowl, mix all the ingredients together, whisk them with a fork until the batter is smooth.

Put the cake in a mug in the microwave and bake for around 1.5 minutes (it can take up to 3 minutes in some microwaves). Tadahh! Your chocolate cake is ready to be eaten.

Here’s the breakdown, per person:
Calories: 384
Carbs: 27g
Fat: 26g
Protein: 9g

I think mug cakes are a very easy afternoon treat for when the weather is pretty dull and work is dragging along. It makes you feel all warm inside :) Plus, the portions are very large so maybe it would even be enough for 3 people. Enjoy!

Love, Becca x